PolandInstitute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences The Institute of Philosophy and Sociology (IFiS) is one of the research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). The Polish Academy of Sciences is a national academic institution, founded by an act of Parliament in 1952 last revised in 1997. PAN’s statutory goals are to promote the comprehensive advancement of science, co-ordinate scientific theoretical and empirical research, and provide expertise for practical application. PAN consists of two separate structures: (i) the autonomous and self-governed corporation of scholars with around 350 national and correspondent members and about 190 foreign members, (ii) the research institutes of the Acad emy. PAN is located in Warsaw, with branches in Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź and Gdańsk.

Students successfully completing our British Master of Arts degree programme may choose to continue to the School’s PhD programme. If their application to continue is accepted, they enter directly into the second year of doctoral studies.

PAN, as a research centre, currently comprises 79 research establishments (institutes and research centres etc) and auxiliary scientific units (archives, libraries, museums, and foreign stations). The research activity of the Academy is financed mainly from the state budget via the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

The primary objective of IFiS PAN as a research centre is to carry out advanced research in philosophy and sociology as well as in cognitive and communication fields. The Institute’s 60 researchers combine theoretical reflection with research in two basic aspects: theory and research methodology. Apart from its research activity the Institute is engaged in education, publishing and popularisation of science.

Graduate School for Social Research (GSSR)

Over 100 hundred young scholars work on their doctoral theses in the Graduate School for Social Research (GSSR) of IFiS PAN, first opened inl 992. Our MA and PhD programmes have been developed over the years based on the knowledge and experience of leading scholars from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Lancaster University, and the Central European University, as well as other respected academics from institutions around the world. GSSR offers a 4 year interdisciplinary doctoral programme with courses in English, and three one year postgraduate programmes taught exclusively in English. The School participates in a Dual PhD degree programme with Lancaster University (UK). Students who successfully complete the postgraduate programme requirements are given the possibility of obtaining a British Master of Arts degree awarded by Lancaster University and are eligible to continue to the School’s PhD programme .

The GSSR is a part of the Centre of Excellence designated in 2004 by the Polish Government and coordinated by the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It is the only Centre of Excellence in Poland operating in the area of social sciences and humanities. The Institute of Philosophy and Sociology was awarded the highest rating, A+, in the most recent (2013) evaluation by the Ministry for Science and Higher Education’s Committee for Evaluation of Academic Units. The presence of the GSSR within IFiS contributed to the award of the A+ rating.

Team member Dr. John Fells Dr. John Fells is academic director of the Graduate School for Social Research also in the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, with which the Centre for Social Studies merged in 2007. After studying at the University of Durham and the LSE, and lecturing at universities in the UK and USA, John Fells joined the TEMPUS programme offices in Warsaw and later in Brussels. In 1995 he returned to Warsaw to help establish the Centre for Social Studies in the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which functioned as the sociology department of the CEU in Budapest until 2003.

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